New Therapeutic Strategies in Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia

Louise M. Man, Amy L. Morris, Michael Keng

Most drugs used in standard regimens for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) were developed more than 30 years ago. Since that time, several new drugs have been developed and incorporated into ALL treatment. In spite of this, novel therapeutic approaches are still needed to improve outcomes for high-risk or relapsed ALL. This manuscript discusses newer treatment strategies, including purine nucleoside analogs, monoclonal antibodies, antibody drug conjugates, mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors, proteasome inhibitors, histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors, hypomethylating agents, spleen tyrosine kinase inhibitors, Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors, Janus kinase-signal transducer and activator of transcription (JAK-STAT) inhibitors, anti-programmed cell death protein (anti-PD-1) antibodies, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MEK) inhibitors, CXCR4 antagonists, poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors, and FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) inhibitors. Additionally, this manuscript discusses the impact of diagnostic approaches on management of ALL. Specifically, minimal residual disease is increasingly felt to be important and will likely dramatically impact the care of ALL patients in the near future.